Chris C

My long weekend was spent in the Tutukaka coast of Northland diving at the poor knights islands. The trip wasn't planned for a cultural experience. It was much more biological and geological due to the things we were planning. The Poor Knight Islands are bathed by a warm water current from the tropics which bring with it larvae of tropical fish. This, along with up welling of nutrient rich water off the continental shelf help to create a spectacular mix of fish species with amazing diversity typically not found in New Zealand. This, for me, was the major attraction to diving at the poor knights. I wanted to see the best sub-tropical diving in the world.
One of my past instructors that taught me much about diving once said "I love diving and do you know why? Because when I'm underwater no one can call me or talk to me." This is sort of the problem with diving when it comes to experience the culture of the area. Once your underwater the only way you can communicate to someone is by hand signals and typically that conversation is very limited in scope. You usually just tell someone to look somewhere, how much air you have left, and asking if they're OK. However you can experience the culture of the area when you are on the surface, steaming out to and coming from where you're diving or at the bar after the dive.
I spent the weekend with Megan. Her and I are the only students who dive on the trip which made an easy buddy pair to diving. After the first day of diving we were outside a fish and chip shop having dinner when we noticed a dog running up and down the board walk unattended. It passed by once or twice until finally being caught by its owners. But the interesting part of this story was that every time it passed it sounded like everyone on the board walk not only knew the dog by name, but also the name of the owner. The community was so tight that everyone knew each other and even their pets by name. This might have been due to the small size of the town. The town of tutukaka is a marina, road around the marina, a hotel, trailer park/camp ground, 4 restaurants/bars. Then your in another town. The sense of community of the people within this town was so strong it could be felt rather easily by a casual diver who was only there for 3 short days.